Melchizedek Priesthood

The Melchizedek Priesthood is the higher Priesthood through which the Gospel is administered, spiritual blessings are bestowed, and the Saints are prepared for the fulness of the Father’s Kingdom. In Restoration usage, however, the phrase must be handled carefully. It includes more than one order or degree and should not be flattened into a single undifferentiated authority.

The Apostolic or High Priesthood

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received Apostolic authority under Peter, James, and John. That authority belongs to the Melchizedek Priesthood and is connected with the High Priesthood, Church presidency, spiritual gifts, and the authority to seal the Saints to eternal life in the order given at that stage of the Restoration.

The published Far West Record for October 25, 1831 preserves Joseph teaching that the order of the High Priesthood had power to seal the Saints unto eternal life.1 Fred C. Collier treats that statement as an important early witness to the sealing authority connected with the High Priesthood before the later Kirtland and Nauvoo unfoldings of the highest Patriarchal keys.2

That early sealing witness should be distinguished from the later sealing keys of Elijah. The High Priesthood could seal Saints unto eternal life as directed by the Spirit; the Elijah keys, as unfolded in the Nauvoo temple order, seal fathers and children, eternal family blessings, and the promises of exaltation through the Holy Spirit of Promise. In practical terms, the former witnesses the saving and confirming power already present in the High Priesthood, while the latter belongs to the Patriarchal family order and the crowning temple blessings by which promised blessings are sealed for eternal lives.3

The Sealing Keys of Elijah

The sealing keys restored by Elijah in the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836 are distinct from the earlier Apostolic keys. Elijah’s keys turn the hearts of fathers and children and belong to the highest Patriarchal order. They reach beyond Church administration into eternal family government, Celestial Marriage, Adoption, and the crowning blessings of the Temple.

That distinction matters for understanding the Second Anointing and the Patriarchal Priesthood. The question is not whether Melchizedek Priesthood exists; it is which order of that Priesthood is being discussed and which keys are being exercised.

Orders Witnessed in the Endowment

Fred C. Collier’s exposition distinguishes the first or lower Melchizedek order, associated with the Apostolic/High Priesthood, from the higher Melchizedek or Patriarchal order connected with the fulness of the Priesthood. The Endowment preserves these distinctions in sacred form while pointing beyond the preparatory Church order toward the Church of the Firstborn.4

For this reason, the Melchizedek Priesthood page should be read with Endowment, Holy Order, Patriarchal Priesthood, and Temple & Ordinances.

Women and Melchizedek Priesthood

Joseph Smith’s April 28, 1842 Relief Society discourse is crucial. Before the first Nauvoo Endowment was administered on May 4, Joseph spoke of the sisters coming into possession of the privileges, blessings, and gifts of the Priesthood, spoke of delivering keys to the Society and to the Church, and connected those keys with the temple work soon to be given.5

This witness stands behind the doctrine treated on the Matriarchal Priestesshood page: women were not outside the higher order. The Holy Order is Patriarchal and Matriarchal, and the exalted family cannot be organized by men alone.

Further Study

Notes

  1. Donald Q. Cannon and Lyndon W. Cook, eds., Far West Record: Minutes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1844 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1983), 20–21. ↩
  2. Fred C. Collier, Doctrinal Teachings of Fred C. Collier, Vol. 2, 248–51. ↩
  3. Collier, Doctrinal Teachings of Fred C. Collier, Vol. 2, 248–52; Collier, The Nauvoo Doctrine in Light of Book of Mormon Prophecy, Part 1: The Concept, Doctrine of the Priesthood, Vol. 3 No. 1 (November 1986), 21–22, 35–36. ↩
  4. Collier, Doctrinal Teachings of Fred C. Collier, Vol. 2, 248–51; see also Fred C. Collier, Analyzing the Different Orders of the Patriarchal Priesthood, Doctrine of the Priesthood, Vol. 7 No. 8 (August 1991). ↩
  5. Joseph Smith, remarks to the Female Relief Society, April 28, 1842, in Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, eds., The Words of Joseph Smith, 114–19; William S. Harwell, The Matriarchal Priestesshood as Established by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Holy Order at Nauvoo, Doctrine of the Priesthood, Vol. 8 No. 3 (March 1991), 7–8. ↩